Abbas Yushau Yusuf
On October 25, 2023, NIGERIAN TRACKER, one of the popular online mediums in Nigeria, published a report on how the present Kano State Government had refused to pay allowances for journalists covering the Government House and the correspondents’ chapel of the NUJ for five months.
Other online mediums and national dailies lifted the story from NIGERIAN TRACKER, some without acknowledging their source.
NIGERIAN TRACKER reliably gathered that the journalists’ allowances were recently settled and paid by the Kano State Government.
Due to bureaucratic bottlenecks and after NIGERIAN TRACKER reported the issue, our source said Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf was not aware of the non-payment of the allowance until after NIGERIAN TRACKER published the report.
It is said that Governor Yusuf ordered those responsible to bring the journalists’ files, where he immediately signed the payment and cautioned them to desist from delaying on issues like that, noting that journalists are part and parcel of his administration.
Our source gathered that internal wranglings within the Government House top echelon contributed to the inability of the payment, which was eventually settled.
The tradition of allowance payment to journalists working and covering Government House activities is a long-standing practice rewarded by previous administrations, including the military.
